Sacrifice Of Righteousness

Psalm 4: 1 – 8

Sacrifice of Righteousness

1 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer. 2 How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? Selah 3 But know that the LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The LORD will hear when I call to Him. 4 Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah 5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD. 6 There are many who say, “Who will show us any good?” LORD, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. 7 You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased. 8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

Someone walks up to you and asks you what is a ‘sacrifice of Righteousness?’ What is your response?

Would you give them something like the scripture passage in Galatians chapter 5, “16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary>”to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

I would say you are close, but you will have to give the person more information.

Righteousness belongs to our Holy God. It is in Him alone. In His Amazing Mercy and Grace, He applies it to us undeserving sinners. With His life-giving sacrifice at Calvary our Great God gives us His Righteousness. Therefore, like Galatians teaches and as Philippians chapter 4 points out, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” We are in good hands with our Lord Jesus.

Today we are going to see David understand this fact and speak about our Holy Kings Righteousness be applied in his life.

I would like you to go with me to a time in the past when David, who penned this Psalm, was experiencing some traumatic events. The severe problems that David faced were a result of David’s adultery and murder of a faithful friend.

Our Great God Jehovah Elyon, The Lord Most High, as you know IS present everywhere and knows all things. So, for his sins, David deserved to die, yet our Merciful God forgave him his sins but also allowed a severe discipline to befall him. Through the mouth of His prophet Nathan, The Holy El Shaddai pronounced upon David the fact that the sword would not depart from his family. This would mean that his sons would wind up killing each other. When the dust cleared four of his boys would die.

I guess you could say his favorite son, Absalom, had schemed to overthrow David and take by force the throne. Through God’s warning David figured out the plot and escaped with some of his trusted friends. So, now we are at the point where David is camped out and is reflecting upon all that had transpired and with a pen in his had wrote down for us these amazing words.

1 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.

When we sin, we draw away from God. We feel that we are going ‘to get it’ from Him. So, being ashamed of our offense against the One Whom we have proclaimed our love and obedience, we just sulk. God must be pretty mad at us. We feel that He isn’t answering any phone calls that we make to Him. He has for sure withdrawn His love and affection towards us, right? - No, not at all. You are not alone if you feel this condition. David is pointing this out vividly.

Do you know what it means to ‘Grieve’ our Wonderful Holy Spirit? Most if not all of you will say that He Is upset over our failure to walk properly in His precepts. We have hurt Him to the point that He is emotionally hurting over our rebellion. In a way this might be true. However, I believe that when we ‘Grieve’ our Great Holy Ghost, He Is heartbroken at the breaking off our close fellowship with Him and the fact that He hurts for us knowing the pain which will result from our sinful decisions.

What we should do is come quickly before our ever Merciful and Gracious Holy Creator and confess our sins. This will bring us back again immediately into a personal close relationship with our Holy King.